EarMen CH-Amp is a fully balanced desktop headphone amplifier created by a company which made quite a stir recently by winning the prestigious EISA award for the EISA HEADPHONE SYSTEM 2022-2023. As far as the award was actually for the entire stack, which consisted of other components like the Tradutto DAC and Staccato streamer, it nevertheless showed that there’s definitely something interesting going on with this relatively new company that has its headquarters in Chicago, but makes and devises its products in Serbia. Moreover, you don’t actually need to look at the specs of the CH-Amp to realize that it is indeed something quite different and interesting at the same time. Its footprint may be small, but what you can immediately notice, and what sets it apart from many other headphone amps at this price point – is the fact that it’s a two-box unit.
Yes, you’ve guessed it, the flagship EarMen headphone amplifier is not only a balanced construction, but it’s also composed of two separate chassis. The smaller one is the main amplifier unit, while the bigger and definitely heftier is a dedicated linear power supply. We’ll obviously get back to this later on, but let’s focus on the manufacturer for a while. EarMen is a relatively new company, but it’s actually also an offspring of the well-known and much respected hi-end creator Auris Audio. The latter one was founded in 2013 by Milomir “Miki” Trosic and made its foray into the hi-end niche of headphone audio with vaccum tube-based amplifiers like Nirvana, which is widely regarded as one of the very best of the breed, and now being in its four reincarnation. Auris Audio is also well-recognized not only because it uses tubes in their circuits, but also by the virtue of the very distinct design, often merging natural wood and leather together – just take a look at their Adagio 2A3 and Fortino 88 as an example. The big, KT-88 based speaker amp has, by the way, a dedicated outboard power supply too, so the idea of putting that vital part of any audio amplifying device outside of the main circuitry box is generally nothing new for the people behind Auris Audio and EarMen.
As for the latter brand, it was born to be a sister company of Auris Audio with the idea of developing more, generally speaking, portable products that would also be a direct answer to the swiftly changing needs of a mobile audio. The Serbian company started off in 2020 with the Donald DAC, a portable digital-to-analogue converter. Then it was followed later on the same year by – also (more or less) portable TR-Amp and two small USB dongles – Sparrow and Eagle. The TR-Amp is probably the easiest to recognize from the bunch, since it also came in a fiery red. Bold colour choices is also another trait of EarMen – one of their newest portable headphone amps (with a DAC) named Angel comes in a very distinctive shade of blue.
Coming back to the gist of the matter, the CH-Amp – it is a part of the new desktop line-up that also consists, as stated at the beginning of this review, of digital-to-analogue converter Tradutto, and streamer Staccato. As also mentioned above, it was a headphone system composed of these three devices that won the aforementioned EISA award. It should be noted that the headphone amp itself is the most expensive of the bunch, retailing at 1480 USD (however there is a summer offer now, links here and here), while matching Tradutto DAC and Staccato streamer are 799 and 999 USD respectively. CH-Amp also seems to be the most interesting offering from the design point of view. Not only because there’s not a plethora of headphone amps with a dedicated, outboard power supply below the 2K USD mark (there are not that many of them in general), but also because of some of the other, less obvious design choices. Obviously, how it sounds will matter the most, however, there’s a lot of various things that are less obvious, yet worth mentioning. So let’s get to it.
CH-AMP – design (choices)
We already know that this particular amplifier is a two-box design. So, for starters – let’s take a look at the dedicated, outboard PSU. It is a bit similar to the power supply that we will find with the Auris Audio Phonio phono preamplifier. However, instead of one power output that we’ll find in the Phonio – at the back side of the PSU-3 that comes together with the CH-Amp – we will find four. One, labelled 2x12VDC/1.5A is a dedicated delivery for the main unit of the CH-AMP, while the other three are also 12V output, but are together equalling to a total of 1.5A of current.
This is a clever design choice that allows the PSU-3 not only to power the amp in question, but also the Tradutto DAC and Staccato streamer at the same time. All from one power supply unit, while still sporting that spare 12V power output left, in case there’s anything that will show up later on in the future. The three 12V 2-pole (the main, “bigger” socket dedicated for CH-Amp is four-pole) can easily power both the Tradutto and Staccato, while still having some of the current headroom left.
We built an external linear power supply for good reasons. We had a lot more space to make a really good PSU with more than enough power and very low noise. Also, in this way we have reduced the electromagnetic interference that could be a problem for very sensitive iEM-s or headphones.
What is also noteworthy is the substantial weight of the PSU-3, which – especially considering its size – is quite hefty at 1.6 Kg (3.52 lbs). This is another remarkable choice, especially in times, when many companies opt for a more featherweight SMPS power supply designs. Whereas, obviously – the final impact of the PSU will be more in the detail and execution than in a particular type of one (whether is it a linear of switched-mode), that substantiality of the PSU-3 simply makes a seriously good impression. And, as a more of a side-note – having (too) light equipment on the desk has never actually been good, especially in the light of the abundance of various off-market and sometimes chunky headphone cables.
As for the “difficult” headphones, it is important to PSU has enough power for surge currents/peak (maximum power/current in a short time) at the output. One more good thing why is PSU external is because of the temperature which can affect all circuitry and lower the quality of sound.
Before we embark onto description of the main unit, there’s one addition to the CH-Amp that warrants separate attention. It’s a small remote control, that can also work with Tradutto DAC. It can control every function of the CH-Amp, but the gain. And every function of Tradutto digital-to-analogue converter. However, one small thing regarding this precisely machined piece of metal really stands out. And – in my humble opinion – is just simply brilliant.